I grew up in the lowland plains near the town of Khylo, in a small trading settlement that also served as a border outpost. Trappers and traders ranged over the whole of Ascalon without much in the way of dangers to worry them, and news and commerce always traveled with them. There was talk of some prince rising in power to establish a solid government over all of Ascalon. Overall, it was a time of peace and prosperity for the people of this great land. The Charr were not an immediate threat, at this time. No one knew where they came from, just that they lived in the mountains and small parties would occasionally raid a village or attack a trade caravan. Border outposts, like the one I lived in, were set up across Ascalon to monitor their movements and be ready to send out soldiers if needed.

I lived with my father and younger sister, Liara. My mother died giving birth to Liara; I was 5 years old at the time and do not really remember her, except that she had the voice of an angel and would sing me to sleep at night. My father was a man of significant prominence in our village, but he also had an air of great mystery around him. I think he held an important post within the village council, but I did not know exactly what his profession was. I do not think my mother approved of his “work”, but I could tell that she deeply loved him and supported him. He was a strong man, set in his ways, with a steel-hard determination against injustice. He was outspoken, but also displayed a gentleness that was always ready to aid those in need. He was a very committed and busy man, but he always had time for me and my sister. Sometimes he would leave for days or weeks in order to fulfill his “duties”. It fell to me to take care of Liara during these times, and I grew to be very protective of her. Whenever I asked my father about his “work”, he would gently lay a strong hand on my shoulder and look at me with a determined yet faraway look in his slate-gray eyes, “Son, the world is a hard, tough place. Yet, all of us are called to serve those in it. We must persevere; we must hold fast and remain true to our calling! We must defend the defenseless!” Whatever my father did, we were always well provided for.

My father’s prized possession was his ash longbow, decorated with ornate carvings of fanciful creatures and mystical runes. It was also inset with small, gray-green stones, spaced evenly along the bow’s length, which seemed to swirl internally with different colors when the light caught them. It had been in his family for generations, passed down from his great, great grandfather. It was said to have been a gift from the gods, that it was endowed with powerful enchantments, that the owner was blessed to never miss a shot and never die while in possession of the bow. I do not know the truth of these stories, as my father would not talk about it or even let me use the bow. The one thing he told me was that the gray-green stone was called elezra, and that it could only be found in the far northern reaches of Ascalon. He promised that the bow would someday be passed on to me, as it had been given to him, and that I would know the truth on that day. I could think of nothing else I wanted more, another glimpse into the nature of my father, and I anxiously waited for that day.

Hunting was a passion which my father loved to indulge in, and he also enjoyed sharing it with me. I will never forget my first “solo” hunt; I was 10 years old. That day will be burned upon my soul forever!! After overseeing my training in the practices and skills of the art of hunting, my father had decided on a little trip as a kind of initiation or passage into manhood. He let me forage ahead, while he held himself back to observe my “performance”. My father could be somewhat of a harsh taskmaster in his teaching and training. It was very important to him that you held yourself true to the essence and purpose of whatever you were doing. And even though my father was stern and very disciplined, I had a great deal of respect for him and aspired to carry myself in the world with his sense of conviction and dedication. Also, his mysterious nature fascinated me and lent itself to many fantasies in which I fought alongside my father to defend the world from the injustice and evil of fantastical creatures and dark horrors. But on this day the “evil” creature we were seeking was the elusive, wild mountain horn-hog. Resembling a bloated, oversized pig with three horns on its head and spikes down its back, the horn-hog was not an adversary to be faced in close-combat. You needed to cripple it from a distance, or risk being gored and disemboweled. Consequently, the “trick” to taking down one of these animals was to spot it before it spotted you; they might look fat and sluggish, but the horn-hog could move incredibly fast when it charged.

We had been walking all morning through the forests of the mountain foothills, as the sun slowly rose up into sky, and the light trickled through the interwoven tree branches steadily driving back the shadows. We had seen no trace, no tracks, no spoor………of any creature! My father is a pretty good tracker and he was quite puzzled and a little disturbed by this observation, although he hid his feelings from me. I began to fantasize that we were hunting a terrible fire lizard that had been terrorizing the village. There was no sign of animals because the giant lizard had recently passed this way, or we were getting close to its lair. I held my small bow tightly in my hands, anxiously looking from side to side, ears intent to every little sound. I would prove myself to my father and to all the villagers. I would slay the creature and make my passage into manhood, and maybe even obtain my inheritance – the treasured longbow! All of a sudden there was a creaking sound up ahead, and a flash of color through the trees. Quicker than thought, my arrow flew from my bow to slay the fearsome beast in its lair. Just as quickly my father reached out and pushed my arm aside, “NO, Kelden, DON’T!!” The arrow shot swiftly through the trees, and then we both heard a muffled thump, and a loud gasp. My father turned to me with a reproving glare in his eyes, grabbed my hand, and practically dragged me forward to see what I had “slain”. The sight we saw, upon emerging from the denseness of the trees, would have been quite comical had my thoughtless act not been so close to committing murder!

We walked into a small clearing and saw a small, multicolored wagon facing us. It was a somewhat unremarkable wagon, except for the fact that it was burdened to overflowing with trade goods and other marketable paraphernalia. Bolts of brightly colored cloth, a vast assortment of rugs and tapestries, polished horns and antlers, gryphon cloaks, wolmer shirts, and breeches made of different animal skins, a small collection of knives and daggers, bottles of many sizes and shapes filled with elixirs, tonics, and dyes, some farming utensils, multicolored stones, parchments, and a few scrolls scattered about, some strange, silvery eggs, a variety of dried flowers and herbs, boots and sandals, an assortment of hats, and strapped onto the top of this amazing pile was a stuffed shadow bat whose giant wings seemed to wrap around the merchandise holding it all in place. Seated on the ground at the side of the wagon, with a shocked look on his face, was a thin, smallish man who looked to be just a collection of bones held together by skin. He was moving his hand back and forth over his head, through a thin amount of silvery hair. Above his head, stuck to the side of the wagon with my arrow, was a tall, purplish hat that branched into two flat tops with blue and gold ribbon tied around them. As we approached, the man looked up and saw us with green eyes that turned as big as his wagon’s wheels. He let out a high-pitched screech, and quickly crawled under the wagon screaming, “PLEASE, PLEASE DON”T HURT ME!! YOU CAN HAVE ALL MY MONEY; IT’S NOT MUCH. JUST TAKE IT; TAKE WHATEVER YOU WANT!! My father looked at me and in a firm voice, which spoke very strongly of a future discussion with me, said, “You stay here! I will take care of this.”

My father talked to the merchant for what seemed like days, while I took an apple out of my pack and fed it to the small pony attached to the wagon. I was amazed that an animal of such small stature could pull such a large pile of stuff, but as I rubbed my hand along the pony’s back and flanks I realized just how muscular the little horse was. Eventually my father called me over to him, and I noticed he had convinced the bony man to come out from underneath the wagon. The thin man glared in my direction as I approached, yanked the arrow out of his hat, and crammed the purplish thing onto his head with an angry flourish. He then threw the arrow at my feet, and adopted a pouting look that seemed to say, “Well kid, what are you going to do next?!” My father looked me firmly in the eye and said, “Kelden, this is Jorvis Muttlefur.” He seemed to pause after the introduction and I knew exactly what was required of me. “I’m sorry to have scared you, sir, and ruined your hat. We were hunting and I thought you were a ………” The thin merchant leaped forward so quickly that I jumped back two steps. “Scared me! Scared me! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!! Not to mention frightening Lewis!” With that, Jorvis marched off to the opposite side of his wagon in a huff. I glanced over towards the pony, which did not look the least bit frightened as it munched contentedly on my apple. I turned to look at my father, and noticed he had a distant, thoughtful look on his face which was quickly replaced by his stern look as he saw me. “You and I obviously need to train some more! I’m going to talk to Jorvis and see if he has any news to share, and then you and I are going home!” As my father walked towards the other side of the wagon he turned slightly towards me and said, “You must keep your mind rooted in reality, son. You can easily become lost in fantasy at the expense of others, as well as yourself!” I heard the muffled tones as my father began to talk to the merchant, and I felt my face flush with guilt and embarrassment. “He knew all along that my mind was somewhere else!”, I thought as I turned to give the pony another apple.

KELDEN NATHORR:
THE LAST HUNT, PART 2

I was bouncing up, down, and sideways, trying desperately to remain seated on the buckboard next to Jorvis. The merchant was mumbling a wide variety of colorful words and curses, as he struggled with the reins to control Lewis and also keep the wagon from broad-siding passing trees. The ground and trees rushed by us like a blur, as merchandise was jostled from the wagon to leave a ragged trail behind us. I had never known that ponies could run so fast!! The air had a strange, tingling feeling to it, and suddenly a bluish bolt of lightning completely incinerated a small tree to our immediate left. With wide eyes completely full of fright and panic, Lewis increased his speed forcing Jorvis to drop the reins and grip the buckboard with white-knuckled hands. “This is it, kid. We either stick it out with Lewis, or we jump! Either way we’ll probably be crushed or incinerated in the end. I don’t know what your father stirred up back there, but it is nastier then a nest of razorwings!!” Looking back over my shoulder at the expanding hole of black nothingness, surrounded by a swirling, electrified, blue-green sky, I wondered if my father was even still alive!!

I had fed Lewis four apples, and was just finishing brushing the pony’s tangled mane when my father finished his talk with Jorvis. The bony merchant had a look on his face like he had tasted a bad murfruit, and my father wore a visage of grim determination as he strode towards me. “Did you find out where the horn-hogs are?”, I hopefully asked, “Are we going to finish the hunt?” One of his big hands grasped my shoulder, and he looked straight at me with eyes reflecting a firm commitment. In his eyes I saw the deep love he had for me, but I also saw a glimmer of fear. I had never known anything to be able to frighten my father! “What’s wrong, Father?!” “Kelden, there’s something I must go and take care of, and I must do it now. It may already be too late! You will go back to town with Jorvis, and I will return as soon as I can. Take care of Liara!” The grip on my shoulder intensified slightly, as if my father did not want to let go…………………or in unspoken, final farewell!! I began to feel a glimmer of fear stirring within me, and then the unnatural stillness of the forest was shattered by a loud thundering crackle. It sounded like God coughing and tearing His robes at the same time!!

The three of us looked up to see a hole forming in the sky above us, surrounded by a swirling band of bluish lightning. The “hole” was as black as black could be, almost a nothingness, the absence of all color and life. The entire sky began to take on a blue-green tint, and bolts of the bluish lightning shot out at trees on the edge of the clearing. The trees did not burst into flame, as when normal lightning strikes; when the bluish lightning hit it was as if the trees had never existed! My father quickly grabbed me, shoved my shocked frame towards Jorvis and said, “Take care of my son!”, and then turned to run out of the clearing. Something within me snapped, and I threw my arm out to grab my father’s cloak. He had been racing off so quickly that the sudden resistance almost strangled him. Whirling around, with fire in his eyes, my father growled, “LET GO OF ME, BOY!!” I stared right at him, and with an unexpected firmness in my voice said, “NO!! I AM A MAN, NOT A BOY, AND I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!” “YOU ARE DEFINITELY NOT ACTING LIKE A MAN!!”, my father snarled as he yanked his cloak free. He turned again to leave, and I spoke these words as a final plea, “What should I tell Liara?” My father stood on the edge of the clearing, clenching and unclenching his hands, anger, fear, and sadness washing across his face. He looked up, but was not able to meet my eyes. “Tell her I fulfilled my duty to the very end. Tell her that her father went on his last hunt!” Bluish lightning struck simultaneously on top of the wagon, and near my father. Jorvis pushed me away from the wagon, and knocked me to the ground; when we looked up seconds later my father was gone. The shadow bat on top of the wagon had ceased to exist, and there was an empty, nothingness in the section of clearing where my father had been standing. Lewis was so spooked by this event that he raced out of the clearing, with the wagon bouncing and jostling behind. Jorvis yelled at the top of his lungs, as he grabbed my arm and ran to catch our ride back to town, “BLAST IT, LEWIS! STOP, YOU MANGY EXCUSE FOR A HORSE!!” I ran along in a state of numbness, trying to process all that had just happened and the realization of my father leaving.

On the bluff overlooking the clearing, a dark shadow detached itself from the trees and looked down upon the merchant and young boy as they managed to throw themselves up onto the fleeing wagon. With an evil, guttural chuckle the dark figure said, “Yesss! Go, my little fleas. Run back to the safety of your little town. Soon there will be no safety anywhere in all of Ascalon. When the Alignment is complete I will have the power to shape the world as I desire, or erase it completely from existence and start over, for I will be Power!! It’s almost a shame that the summoning energies have destroyed my old…………” The figure paused, as if in thought, as if the thought was troubling. Then with a shake of the head the guttural voice softly said, “Baelon, Baelon,………… you were a good and wise man; too much for your own good and mine, but wise enough to sense what I’m attempting and send Kelden away. Not that it will do any good! Forgive me! ............. I should have listened to you!” The dark figure turned and slowly walked away from the bluff’s edge.

As Jorvis made his pronouncement of our doom, all of my scattered thoughts crystallized into one firm decision. My father couldn’t be dead; He was an experienced woodsman and hunter who had survived many dangerous situations during his life. If anything, he was lying injured in the brush at the edge of the clearing. My hunting “mistake”, and my father’s accusation as he left, still burned in my mind. I wasn’t a boy anymore! I longed to show my father that I was ready to stand beside him and claim the responsibility of manhood. I had to show him I was ready! He needed my help!! I knew exactly what I was going to do.

I quickly looked in the bed of the jostling wagon. Most of the merchandise had already been bounced out, but my eyes immediately homed in on some rolled-up tapestries. Turning to Jorvis I saw that he was leaning as far over the edge of the wagon as possible, with his feet hooked under the buckboard, trying to grab Lewis’ reins. With every jolt of the wagon I was afraid that the bony merchant’s frame would snap in two. “I’m jumping”, I yelled and leaped into the wagon’s bed without waiting for a response. I unrolled a large tapestry, secured one end underneath the other tapestry rolls and a large vase that was surprisingly unbroken, and threw the other end out the back of the wagon. Moving slowly to the edge of the bed I steadied myself and watched the tapestry slide over the rocks and small bushes of the “trail” we were traveling on. Hanging onto the side of the wagon, I readied myself to jump when Jorvis suddenly yelled at me, “Kid, Get back up here! Did you fall and hit your head, or are you just plain looney?!! What are you going to do out here all by yourself with THAT getting bigger and nastier with every second?!!” I looked up and saw that he was right; the “hole of nothingness” had gotten bigger, the blue-green sky seemed to be swirling faster, and an increasing number of bluish bolts were falling down like some kind of strange rain shower. I clenched my teeth, swallowed hard, turned to Jorvis and said, “I have to go back……………my father’s out there!” With that I closed my eyes and leaped off the back of the wagon.

The trailing tapestry basically did nothing to cushion my fall! I hit the ground fairly hard, the wind knocked out of me with a loud “whoosh”, and I instinctively grabbed for the edge of the woven mural. In an instant I realized my mistake, as I now found myself bouncing up and down on the tapestry. Jorvis was acting like a crazy man, yelling at Lewis to slow down or face innumerable gruesome deaths and then darting halfway into the wagon bed trying to find something that would aid me. Lewis continued racing ahead in fright, Jorvis never found anything that would help me, the tapestry glanced off of a rock outcropping, and I flew through the air to land unceremoniously in a nalaberry bush. By the time I extricated myself from the bush, there was no sign of the wagon. Nalaberry leaves are quite sticky, and I could not remove them from my clothes, skin, and hair. As I started back-tracking the wagon’s trail, following the ragged line of cast-off merchandise, I must have looked like some kind of half-man / half-plant creature.

Due to the catastrophic phenomenon that was taking place overhead, it took me twice as long to make my way back to the clearing where I had last seen my father. After quite a few very close calls with the bluish lightning, I became adept at sensing when the next bolt would strike near me. And I owe my salvation to those incredibly sticky nalaberry leaves! Whenever the air became charged with the threat of an impending strike, the stickiness of the leaves developed an almost-prickly quality. By being alert to this change I was able to avoid the lightning, even though the frequency of bolts increased steadily as I got closer to the clearing. Stepping into the clearing was like moving from the raging intensity of a torrential downpour into the calmness and security of a hillside cave. Electrical energy struck down around the clearing in an almost solid, bluish wall, but within the clearing no bolts fell; all was quiet and still. Looking up I saw that the dark “hole” filled my entire view of the sky. I had to find my father, fast!! Running over to the spot where I had last seen him standing, I bent low to examine the ground. Within a charred and disrupted patch of ground the size of Lewis’ head, my fingers discovered burned fragments of my father’s cloak. This discovery should have caused despair to awaken deep within me and begin to devour my hope. But I truly was my father’s son and knew him very well, despite the limited amount of time I had spent with him. I knew how skilled a woodsman and hunter he was. I also knew that above all else he was a survivor. He always found a way to beat the odds, and that fact fueled the hope within me sending despair whimpering back into its lair.

It didn’t take me very long to discover traces of my father’s passage, even with the almost constant electrical barrage that was taking place at the clearing’s edge. Even so, I must have narrowly avoided a dozen hits by the unnatural bluish bolts before finding a trail of scuffed boot prints and disrupted vegetation that led up towards the top of the bluff. The ragged nature of this trail told me that my father must not have avoided the lightning strike after all. At least there was no sign of blood on the vegetation or the ground! I hurried forward and started to climb the side of the bluff. The vegetation began to slowly change; the trees became more of a scrub-variety, and the undergrowth became sparse and of a gnarly type that appeared to have been there for thousands of years. The air was thick with electrical tension, and a strange smell like burning perfume. Partway up the slope I noticed that all the nalaberry leaves had shriveled, presumably from too many close calls, and fallen off of me. I had begun to take their “protection” for granted and now, with a feeling in my stomach like quicksand sucking at me, suddenly realized that I was completely vulnerable to being zapped out of existence!!

My father’s trail continued straight up to the top of the bluff. I looked up to see how far I had left to climb, and noticed for the first time that the “hole of nothingness” was forming almost directly over the bluff’s top. There was no possible way that my father would be able to stop the formation of this incredible phenomenon. And yet, the urgency and commitment that was in his voice when he left the clearing seemed to indicate without a doubt that he meant to try! Could it be that someone or something had caused this raging whirlpool in the sky to exist? If so, then it was a being of formidable power!! My father was definitely going to need my help, especially if he was in a weakened state from the lightning strike in the clearing. And in climbing up to the bluff, he may have been “hit” many times; he was normally very quick and agile, but if his wounds prevented that……………………….

Now that I was almost to the top I noticed that there were no lightning bolts falling around me anymore. Looking back down towards the clearing, I saw that what I thought was a ring of bluish bolts around the clearing was actually a ring around the bluff. I had just walked through the part of the ring that touched on the clearing’s edge. Turning back to my climb I was confronted with a very large, rugged outcropping of rock that formed part of the bluff’s edge. It would take too long to go around, so I turned to a trick my father had shown me a few years earlier. Taking a length of strong, light rope out of my small pack, I tied it to the fletching of an arrow. Taking aim on a small tree at the top of the outcropping I let the arrow fly. No mistake this time! The arrow hit the tree with heartening solidity. As I pulled myself up over the bluff’s edge I was greeted by a sight that seemed to have been taken from a nightmare, which made the reality of it all the more frightening!!

The top of the bluff stretched out before me, with small bushes and scrub grass tinted blue from all the encircling lightning. The air had a dryness to it that felt like sand scraping across my skin, and a metallic, sulfurous taste. I felt like I was standing in the center of a tornado, for the “hole in the sky” was directly above the bluff like a giant mouth threatening to swallow everything whole! Boulders of different shapes and sizes lay scattered across the bluff’s top, but my eyes were drawn to group of large, pillar-like stones arrayed in circle with four large “pillars” lying flat on the ground, extending out from the circle like spokes in a wagon wheel. These “spokes” pointed in the directions of a compass. Occasionally bolts of the bluish lightning would shoot out towards the circle of stones, bounce back and forth among them like a crazed spider weaving a web of energy, and then travel along one of the compass stones to shoot back into the encircling lightning. A dark, robed figure could be seen within the circle of stones, arms upraised and motioning back and forth as if orchestrating the lightning itself. A strange, unearthly sounding chanting issued forth from this figure, sounding like deep things being unearthed in the middle of a raging war between cats, birds, and demons! The figure appeared to fade in and out of my vision, like a shadow struggling to remain cohesive amidst rays of sunlight. In its right hand the dark figure held what appeared to be a medium-size stone, that was raised upward periodically during the chanting. Each time the stone was raised it glowed in a swirling mass of colors, like a rainbow was trapped inside trying to get free.

I slowly crept forward to get a better view, low to the ground, moving from one scattered boulder to another. As I got closer I saw a sight that gave the whole otherworldly scene a heart of terror, and horrified me to the very core of my being. I stopped suddenly, as if frozen, and it was all I could do to stifle the soul-rending cry that built up within me seeking release! I wanted to cry; I wanted to lash out in destructive anger; I wanted to turn back time, say and do things differently, be less hurtful and more obedient, anything to change the scene before me! The image was burned into my brain amid the lightning flashes; a deformed mass of flesh that used to be my father was strung up between two pillars!! I could not tell if my father was alive or dead; the only movement came when stray tendrils of bluish energy from the conducting pillars passed through his body, causing it to arc and shake. The lightning bolts had caused extensive bodily damage to my father, or else the dark figure had used torture to extract some sought after knowledge or just to feed a twisted and evil desire. His right arm was completely missing, and the left leg was gone up to the knee. His chest was an ugly mass of purplish-black scorches and wounds. All facial hair had been completely burned away, along with his right eye. The only good thing that I could see was that all the wounds had been instantly cauterized by the lightning’s heat, so there had been very little blood loss; I could hardly stand to look at what remained of my father’s body, and I realized that I had been holding my breath!

The dark-robed figure stopped chanting, and cocked its head as if sniffing the air. Slowly turning around, as if in some surreal dance, the left hand raised up in a sharp gesture and pointed at my father. Almost immediately a medium-sized bluish bolt shot down from the sky, through my father’s body, and into me. I had no indication that I had been discovered, and definitely no time to evade, but still I found myself transfixed to the ground, unable to move or even utter a sound, surrounded by a crackling, pulsating aura of bluish energy. And then the entire bizarre and horrific scene before me was turned completely upside down and inside out, as the robed figure dropped its cowl to reveal feminine features etched by age and darkness, and the gravelly voice issued forth to proclaim, “Look, my dear, our son has finally arrived!”